Hot line established for Mecca flood-damage reports

News Release

2012

Sep21

Hot line established for Mecca flood-damage reports

Continuing the shift from emergency response to recovery, Riverside County broadened damage
assessment efforts and set up a hotline that residents and businesses in and around Mecca can use
to report damage caused by last week's floods.

About 30 county fire/OES, code enforcement, health, housing and transportation officials were
in Mecca Friday. Teams moved throughout the community to contact residents whose homes were damaged
and identify their needs.

Mecca-area residents whose homes sustained damage during the recent rainstorm and subsequent
flooding can use the 211 telephone system to report damage.

County officials said much of the floodwaters that covered a portion of the community have
receded, but the damage caused by the rains, mud and debris is now being discovered as residents
return to their homes. The 211 system will be used to gather information and better gauge the
extent of residential damage in the area.

Businesses that were damaged can also call 211.

Early Sept. 11, heavy rains drenched the Mecca-Thermal area, sending water and mud more than
two feet deep in some places through portions of the community. Residents of Desert Mobile Home
Park, commonly called Duroville, were particularly hard hit as contaminated floodwaters inundated
the park, knocking out electricity to some homes and disabling the water system. Other mobile home
parks in the area sustained damage.

In the 10 days since the floods, county officials have been working with community
organizations to provide temporary housing to some residents whose homes were damaged, but
Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins said the use of the 211 system gives the community a
one-stop source to report problems and ask questions.

“It will also give us a tool to better assess the extent of the damage and determine the best
way to allocate resources,” he said.